Château Dalle-Dumont

The neoclassical château was built from 1910 for the Derville family. During the First World War, Wervicq-Sud came under German occupation and the building was requisitioned as Feldlazarett No. 9.

Wounded German soldiers were treated here, while those who died from their injuries were buried in a temporary cemetery beside the château.

Several well-known names are connected with this period. German expressionist artist Max Beckmann worked here as a medical orderly during the war. Adolf Hitler also received first aid here in October 1918 after being injured in a gas attack. He was later transferred to a military hospital in Pasewalk, in north-eastern Germany.

Behind the château stands an eighteenth-century Flemish farmhouse, now home to the Musée des Petits Métiers de la Ferme.

Old tools, farming equipment and reconstructed rooms give an idea of rural life in the past and the trades once connected with agriculture. The museum was closed during my visit, although several pieces of old farming equipment could still be seen outside.

If you want to visit the museum, it is worth checking the opening hours beforehand.

From the farmhouse, the paths continue into the woodland. This was my favourite part of the walk.

Once beneath the trees, I hardly saw anyone else. It is peaceful here, but traces of the estate’s military past are still scattered through the woods.

Four German concrete structures from the First World War survive on the estate. These include former machine-gun positions and a larger L-shaped bunker, probably used as an artillery position. A narrow-gauge railway built by the German army may also once have ended nearby.

Not all of the remains are immediately visible. Some only appear when you slow down and look between the trees. That is part of what makes this section so interesting. It does not feel like a carefully arranged heritage site, but like a woodland where parts of the war have simply remained in place.

Deeper in the woods stands the monument that originally brought me to Château Dalle-Dumont.

The stone tower, almost ten metres high, was designed by German architect Wilhelm Kreis and built during the First World War in memory of German soldiers killed in 1914 and 1915. It was inaugurated on Christmas Day 1915. The stone dome alone weighs around nine tonnes.

After the war, the German cemetery beside the château was moved farther down the slope, while the monument remained where it was.

As the tower gradually began to sink into the sloping ground, it was dismantled in 1983 and 1984 and rebuilt stone by stone by German soldiers with help from the French Army.